- The Annual Fundraiser Strikes Back
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors SH and T — their $5 in (monthly!) donations yesterday brings our annual fundraiser total to $1,151.50!
Our goal is $5,503. Once we’ve raised the first half, supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for the other half … but we MUST raise the first half to get the second half, and we remain $1,600 short of that amount. So:
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Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - France: Unions Unite for Nationwide Strikes
Source: US News & World Report
“French trade unions are joining forces on Thursday for nationwide strikes and demonstrations for higher wages and in support of the high school protest movement, piling new pressure on the beleaguered government. After more than a month of regular and large protests across France, major rallies are again expected in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, with hundreds of thousands of people likely to turn out. Transportation chaos is expected and some schools could be shut as teachers join the strike. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that 70,000 police are being deployed, backed by armored vehicles, drones and helicopters. Police have been criticized for injuring protesters with heavy-handed tactics.” (11/05/26)
- Russia: Regime says it struck logistics and transport targets in Ukraine overnight
Sourc: Raleigh News & Observer
“The Russian military said on Thursday it hit logistics and transport targets in various regions of Ukraine overnight. In Kharkiv region, a Nova Poshta logistics hub was struck, as well as railway locomotives and an industrial building at the Thermal Power Plant 2. The logistics hub was used by Ukrainian military to assemble drones, the Russian Defence Ministry said In Dnipropetrovsk region a power station was hit.: (11/05/26)
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article317936360.html
- IN: State employees carry out first of three planned nationwide prisoner killings
Source: CBS News
“An Indiana man who admitted killing his girlfriend’s two children was [killed] early Thursday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled for the same day in the U.S. Jeffrey Weisheit killed the children, ages 8 and 5, by setting fire to his girlfriend’s house in the Evansville area in 2010. … Florida and Alabama were also set to carry out [prisoner killings] Thursday, which would mark the second time this year that three people in the U.S. would be put to death on the same day.” (11/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-us-executions-same-day-second-time/
- Ethiopia: Regime expels six Sudanese diplomats, orders closure of consulate
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours and closed Sudan’s consulate in the border town of Asosa, according to media reports. The reports on Tuesday came as tensions between the countries continue to rise, with Sudan accusing Ethiopia of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while Ethiopia accuses Sudan of backing rebels in its northern Tigray region. The allegations and counter-allegations, which both sides deny, have raised fears that the two wars could bleed into each other, spawning a broader conflict in the Horn of Africa.” (11/04/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/sudan-ethiopia-order-tit-for-tat-diplomatic-expulsions
- MS: US Senate race heads to an extended vote count and possible ballot battle
Source: NBC News
“The Mississippi Senate race may take days to resolve, as Democrat Scott Colom leads GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 65 votes in the current vote count. And as votes continue to be counted, all eyes are on an unknown number of ballots that could shift the result — and lead to a very murky recount process. … Around 6,000 mail ballots appear to have been distributed but not yet been returned Monday, according to data from the Mississippi secretary of state’s office, which did not reply to a request for comment. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted in Mississippi if they are received by 5 p.m. Nov. 10. An unknown number of so-called affidavit ballots, also known as provisional ballots, are also outstanding.” (11/04/26)
- UK: 320,000 files leaked in Bristol schools cyber-attack
Source: Yahoo! News
“An investigation has found that 320,000 files stolen [sic] from a council’s school network have been published online following a cyber-attack on 88 schools in Bristol. Bristol City Council says a significant number of files have been made available online. It’s urgently working with Avon and Somerset Police, the South West’s regional organised crime unit and cybersecurity experts to review what information has been leaked and who exactly is affected. Schools are being issued with guidance to reduce the risks of scams and fraud that can follow a data theft. Bristol City Council say the cyber-attack happened in September and affected schools that use its Trading with Schools IT platform.” (11/04/26)
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/childrens-data-leaked-criminals-bristol-085850652.html
- Former “Diddy” prosecutor to lead investigation into alleged Cornell sexual assault
Source: NBC News
“New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday that a former federal prosecutor who oversaw the criminal case against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will lead the investigation into an alleged 2024 sexual assault at a Cornell University fraternity house. Former federal prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly, a Cornell graduate, was also the first chief of the civil rights unit in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Kelly is now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, a firm that represented women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse. … A former Cornell student filed a lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Doe in September, accusing seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity of plying her with drugs and sexually assaulting her after what was initially a consensual threesome at the chapter’s house on Oct. 19 and 20, 2024.” [editor’s note: My recollection is that this prosecutor was only able to get Combs convicted on two of five charges – TLK] (11/04/26)
- Israel: Herzog accepts certified election results in a blow to Netanyahu’s claim of vote fraud
Source: Boston Herald
“Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday accepted as legally binding the certified results from last week’s parliamentary elections and said he would begin consultations with party representatives on the formation of a new government. Herzog’s acceptance of the results as valid dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to discredit the vote in which his religious-nationalist bloc lost its majority in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, while Arab-led parties made historic gains. Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that the Arab-led parties had ‘stolen’ the election, possibly with foreign assistance. The Israeli president is required now to sit down with various party leaders to determine who to name as prime minister-designate — a process that could potentially bring Netanyahu’s opponents to power.” (11/04/26)
- Johnson out as US House Republican leader
Source: Semafor
“House Speaker Mike Johnson privately told staff he is not planning on running for minority leader or any other leadership role in the next Congress, according to people familiar with the comments. His decision will kick off a scramble among House Republican leadership contenders in the aftermath of their sweeping losses Tuesday night. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and current Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., are launching leadership bids on Wednesday. … Republicans could see other shakeups further down their leadership chain. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, currently the Republican Study Committee chair, announced in a letter to GOP colleagues Wednesday that he’d run for the second-ranking position.” (11/04/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/04/2026/johnson-out-as-house-republican-leader
- Australia: Regime argues in court that social media ban is FOR THE CHILLLLLLLLDREN
Source: Toronto Star [Canada]
“Government lawyers told Australia’s highest court on Wednesday that a world-first ban on children younger than 16 from holding social media accounts was necessary to protect developing brains. The Australian government is fighting in the High Court two constitutional challenges to the ban that took effect last year on young children holding accounts on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch. The challenges were brought by Reddit, a U.S. online forum, and Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project.” (11/04/26)
- TX: Regime wants to dramatically expand alligator hunting
Source: Houston Chronicle
“Texas could soon give alligator hunters significantly more time to pursue the reptiles as wildlife officials grapple with a surprising trend: more alligators, but fewer being hunted. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is proposing to more than triple the alligator hunting season in 22 Southeast Texas counties, including Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Liberty. The season would expand from 20 to 61 days, running from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 instead of Sept. 10 through Sept. 30. The changes, which will be discussed during a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4, would also allow nighttime alligator hunting on private property, including private waters, and expand the methods hunters can use to capture the reptiles.” (11/04/26)
https://www.chron.com/wildlife/article/texas-alligator-hunting-season-changes-22509593.php
- Contractor admits passing US regime’s top-secret information to Ethiopian regime
Source: ABC News
“A former U.S. government contractor has admitted passing classified intelligence to Ethiopia that officials used in military operations, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 54, supplied secrets to senior Ethiopian officials for more than two years urging them to deploy drones against fighters battling the government, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Lemma, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. He worked as an information technology contractor at the State Department, Justice Department and National Reconnaissance Office, prosecutors said.” (11/04/26)
- NYC: Devoted mom found dead next to gang member boyfriend in suspected murder-suicide
Source: New York Post
“A Bronx nurse and her federal agent boyfriend were found shot dead in a Riverdale apartment Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide, according to police and sources. Andrea Cantarini, 37, and her boyfriend, Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38 — a US Customs and Border Patrol officer stationed at JFK airport — were found with fatal gunshot wounds to their heads inside Cantarini’s apartment on Blackstone Avenue in Riverdale around 9 p.m., the NYPD said. Diaz allegedly shot and killed Cantarini, before apparently turning the gun on himself, according to the sources.” (11/04/26)
- France: New Cyberattack Targets Blood Banks, Health Ministry Says
Source: US News & World Report
“Several regional blood banks were hit by a cyberattack on November 2, the French health ministry said on Wednesday, but there was no damage to blood products stored in the centres. The incident follows attacks that forced stores in eight European countries to throw away vast quantities of food after hackers tampered with their fridges on Monday, mirroring hacks that swept dozens of supermarkets in France three weeks ago.” (11/04/26)
- Appeals court hands Mamdani legal win on NYC luxury second-home tax
Source: Fox News
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored a legal victory Wednesday after a state appeals court cleared the way for his administration to move forward with a controversial tax on high-end second homes, according to The New York Times. The Brooklyn-based appellate court reversed a September ruling by a Staten Island judge, who found that the city mishandled the tax’s rollout and ordered officials to start over. The city appealed the decision while continuing to implement the tax, also called a pied-à-terre tax.” (11/04/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-hands-mamdani-legal-win-nyc-luxury-second-home-tax
- Bitcoin Price Dips Under $76K Then Recovers as Blue Wave Hits Washington
Source: Bitcoin.com
“Bitcoin slid to about $75,740 overnight before recovering to $77,000 as U.S. midterm returns showed Democrats taking the House and closing in on the Senate, dragging stock futures and crypto lower together. … Bitcoin was not alone in witnessing a slump as CNBC reported that S&P 500 futures traded 1.1% lower, Nasdaq 100 futures shed 2% and Dow futures fell 367 points, or 0.7%. The Kobeissi Letter noted the S&P 500 was on track to open below 7,500 for the first time since July 31 as markets priced in a Democratic victory in both chambers.” (11/04/26)
https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-news/bitcoin-price-dips-under-76k-democrats-midterms/
- Zelensky gives Melania Trump Ukraine’s highest award after Oleshky ceasefire
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has given the country’s highest award for women to the US First Lady, Melania Trump. The Order of Princess Olha, 1st Class, was awarded to Melania Trump for her ‘significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine’, according to the presidential decree. It comes after the end of ceasefire in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson, which allowed for the evacuation of several hundred people from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. Russian and Ukrainian delegations – made up of ombudsmen who were involved in the evacuation mission as well as senior officials – are due to meet at the White House on Thursday on Melania Trump’s invitation. The White House said that Melania Trump had ‘independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire’. ‘This achievement marks an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American First Lady’, it added.” (11/04/26)
- Spain: Economy minister takes over transport ministry after deadly crash
Source: Politico
“Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, will run the country’s Transport Ministry until the Nov. 29 election following the resignation of Óscar Puente, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday morning. … Puente resigned on Tuesday over the Oct. 28 train crash in Toledo province that killed 69 people, calling his decision ‘a matter of political dignity.’ It was Spain’s second deadly rail disaster this year after January’s accident in Adamuz, which killed 46 people.” (11/04/26)
- Scientist who brought frog embryos to Boston for cancer research cleared of smuggling charges
Source: SFGate
“U.S. prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a Russian scientist who was tossed into an immigration jail last year after she landed at a Boston airport with frog embryos intended for her cancer research at Harvard Medical School. Kseniia Petrova, 31, spent four months in detention following her arrest in early 2025 as she returned from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a customs checkpoint at Logan International Airport, then later charged with smuggling. A federal judge on Wednesday granted a request by prosecutors to dismiss those charges as well as counts alleging that she’d concealed facts and made false statements to government officials.” (11/04/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/federal-judge-dismisses-case-against-russian-born-22512123.php
- Politicians Come and Go. The Machinery of Oppression Remains
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead“After a midterm election that saw billions of dollars spent on political advertising and a Democratic wave sweep Republicans out of power in Congress, Americans have once again been promised a new direction for the country. The voters have spoken. The balance of power in Washington has shifted. A new Congress will have the opportunity to rein in an imperial presidency and hold the government accountable for its abuses. But the question that must rightfully be asked is: what comes next? Will Congress finally rein in the surveillance state, the militarization of the police, the detention machinery, the endless wars, the government spending spree and the corporate interests that profit from the American police state? Or will the politicians settle back into their comfortable routines while the government machine keeps right on running? This is where Hollywood’s dystopian warnings become disturbingly relevant.” (11/04/26)
- A Great Antiwar Victory
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“The party in power typically loses seats in a midterm election, but the president has to do something catastrophically stupid to provoke a backlash this large. In Trump’s case, it was his decision to start an illegal war of aggression against Iran that destroyed his presidency and wrecked his party. The party running proudly antiwar candidates prevailed, and the mindlessly pro-war party was routed. While there were several reasons for the extensive Republican losses, this was above all a great antiwar victory. … Voters want an end to the war and accountability for the government’s destructive policies. Americans are giving the Democrats a chance to rein in the president’s open corruption and abuses of power. Once the new Congress is in session, the priority has to be forcing an end to the war using the power of the purse.” (11/04/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/a-great-antiwar-victory
- Russia Wants To Censor Americans. Why Are US Tech Companies Helping?
Source: Reason
by Jack Verrill“When Russia designated the Human Rights Foundation as ‘undesirable’ earlier this year, the New York City–based nonprofit knew what was coming next. In September, the HRF received a notice demanding it block Russians from accessing its signature Tyranny Tracker. But the notice did not come from Russia; it came from WP Engine, a web hosting company headquartered in Austin, Texas. … The Guaranteeing Rights Against Novel International Tyranny and Extortion (GRANITE) Act aims to stop this. Introduced in the House by Rep. Michael Rulli (R–Ohio) in August and currently sitting in the Judiciary Committee, the bill would confirm in statute that U.S. courts will not enforce foreign censorship orders, and would allow individuals to sue foreign censors for attempting to restrict the protected speech of American citizens. The former is the shield; the latter is the sword.” (11/04/26)
https://reason.com/2026/11/04/russia-wants-to-censor-americans-why-are-u-s-tech-companies-helping/
- Did Voters Get Things Wrong on Tuesday?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Mueller“With another election season behind us, we should revisit some of the great economic and political debates about the merits of voting and electoral politics. While majorities successfully elected candidates and passed referenda across the country on Tuesday, they will likely not be happy with all the effects of their choices on society. Or, to put it another way, the majority got what it wanted, but it is not going to like it.” (11/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/did-voters-get-things-wrong-on-tuesday/
- A Plea to the Next Congress
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro“We have now entered the ninth month of an asinine and unwinnable conflict prosecuted by the White House in open defiance of the Constitution—which, for those who have forgotten, sagely reserves to Congress the power to declare war. And for all the casuistry and careful word-games of executive branch lawyers, for all the attempts by cabinet officials and congressional leadership to cloud and complicate the obvious, for all the recent protestations of the president himself—usually admirably forthright about the essential warrishness of the war—that this is ‘not a war’ or a ‘soft war,’ it is, in fact, a war. Its commencement without congressional authorization was unlawful; its termination by congressional action is essential if our legislature is to regain its constitutional role (not to mention its institutional self-respect).” (11/04/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-plea-to-the-next-congress/
- “Lawyer Up”: Dems Prepare to Unleash Political Rage in Congress
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“Within minutes of the Democrats retaking power in the House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the expected chair of the House Oversight Committee, just posted a menacing two-word message: ‘Lawyer up!’ Across the country, far-left politicians and pundits immediately demanded a spasm of investigations and impeachments as soon as they assume control of both houses. Like a nation of Madame Defarges, activists are eagerly knitting the names of targets into the lists of the walking dead, starting with Haley Stevens, who decided to test the ‘big tent’ claims by splitting her ticket to vote against Abdul El-Sayed. The conditions on the Hill are only likely to make such rage politics more appealing with the new Congress. Despite the large margin secured in the House, it is not enough to overcome a veto requiring two-thirds of both houses.” (11/04/26)
- Trump as Ozymandias: The Most Impermanent President in History
Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Erick-Woods Erickson“In 2024, Donald Trump assembled a multiracial and multiethnic coalition of voters who bristled at the progressivism of the Democrats and the wreckage of the economy. By 2026, Trump and his White House acolytes set that coalition on fire to cater to a group of hyperonline grievance mongers who have confused Twitter with real life. Last night, the American constitutional system worked as designed and worked so well and so thoroughly that the party that lied to itself in 2020 that it had lost only because the election was stolen is now lying to itself that it lost only because of gas prices and war. Last night’s drubbing was too complete to be theft.” (11/04/26)
https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/trump-as-ozymandias-the-most-impermanent
- California’s new chatbot law has a free speech problem
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by John Coleman“Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association struck down a California law barring the sale of violent video games to minors. The Court held that the state’s legitimate power to protect children does not include ‘free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.’ It also rejected the idea that the interactivity of video games made them legally different from books, plays, or films. Today, California is again overreaching to block access to an interactive medium in the name of child safety.” (11/04/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/californias-new-chatbot-law-has-free-speech-problem
- Midterm elections that chasten
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Perhaps the best result of America’s midterm elections was that President Donald Trump quickly accepted the results, contrary to his usual tendency to claim he always wins. On Tuesday night, he told The New York Times that he is ‘absolutely willing’ to honor the Democrats’ taking control of Congress. ‘We’ll … look forward to working with them,’ he said. The Republican Party in general was indeed humbled in a surprisingly high number of electoral contests, whether for Congress or statehouses. In their concession speeches, several losing GOP candidates took the time to express a measure of decency and civility about their defeat. ‘It’s important to win with humility and gratitude and lose with grace and dignity,’ said Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican who lost his seat to Sherrod Brown, a Democrat. ‘No matter whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, I want you to succeed.'” (11/04/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/1104/Midterm-elections-that-chasten
- Biden’s Gift to China: How Washington Helped Build Beijing’s AI Chip Industry
Source: American Greatness
by Julio Rivera“Joe Biden’s Washington set out to slow China’s march toward technological dominance. Instead, it may have handed Beijing one of the best incentives imaginable to build its own semiconductor industry. Now, as President Donald Trump pursues a different approach to win the AI race, a Congress controlled by his own party is considering provisions that could lock America into a more rigid export-control regime just when strategic flexibility matters most. The irony is hard to miss. Huawei chairman Xu Zhijun reportedly credited American pressure with helping China’s semiconductor industry grow. Washington wanted to make it harder for Chinese companies to obtain advanced chips and the equipment needed to manufacture them. Beijing’s response was to double down on domestic alternatives. When the world’s second-largest economy decides that it can no longer depend on American technology, it has every incentive to throw money, talent, and political muscle at building its own.” (11/04/26)
- Post-Election Day Thoughts
Source: Chris Spangle
by Chris Spangle“Voters will keep voting for their best chance at affordability until they get it. That’s why Trump won in 2024. People want the economy they had in 2018 again. It is, and always will be, the economy, stupid. We keep having change election after change election because both parties want to appeal to their increasingly radical bases and not to voters’ far more moderate views.” (11/04/26)
- Immunity Without Accountability: Who Answers When Government Fails?
Source: Town Hall
by Joe Abraham“Katie Abraham was 20 when she was killed on January 19, 2025, in Sanctuary Urbana, Illinois. Her death changed my life forever and sharpened a question beyond the person responsible for the crash: When government decisions affect public safety, who holds officials accountable when their policies or failures create foreseeable risks? Government officials need legal protections to perform their duties. Judges must make difficult decisions, legislators need room to deliberate, and executive officials must be able to govern without constant fear of personal lawsuits. But immunity is not one universal protection. Different legal standards apply to different officials and functions. Protecting legitimate judgment is one thing. Preventing serious failures from being examined is another. The familiar response to government failure is that voters can remove those responsible. Elections are essential, but their effectiveness depends on whether political power can meaningfully be challenged.” (11/04/26)
- The next Congress shouldn’t let Iran become a “background war”
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Andrew Jarocki“Truly ending a war of choice is hard. Anything short of total victory, especially for the American psyche, is unsatisfying. If the home front can be insulated from its consequences, the temptation is strong to wade deeper into a no man’s land between peace and war in search of a more palatable outcome. With Venezuelan oil on the way to rescue gas prices, perhaps just a few more months of conflict with Iran could secure a more face-saving end?a The hard-learned answer is no. Allowing the White House to continue to wage a conflict in the background, with no pressure to meet deadlines or clear metrics of victory, is like ignoring a steady drip from a pipe and acting surprised when the basement is eventually flooded.” (11/04/26)
- “It’s the war, stupid”: Dems sweep midterms on wave of voter anger
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Blaise Malley“Democrats secured an overwhelming victory in the midterm elections on Tuesday in a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump’s first two years in office, winning majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. By midnight Democrats flipped six Senate seats — including in reliably red states like South Carolina, Texas, and Kansas. As of this morning, they added Michigan and Maine. In a rare inversion of historical trends, foreign policy played a serious role in the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Exit polling showed 74% of voters said the Iran War was a ‘crucial’ or ‘major’ factor in their vote. Exit polling also found that 62% of voters believed using military force against Iran was the ‘wrong decision.’ This all jibed with polls leading up to the midterms.” (11/04/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/midterm-elections-2026-results/
- Israel Supporters Always Pretend To Believe Things They Don’t Actually Believe
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“The New York Times has published a story about a supposed Iranian plot to use chemical weapons which nobody actually believes. Not even the perpetually war-horny New York Times tries to frame this as a real news report, presenting it instead as a subject of tense division inside the Trump White House. … To be clear, not one single person anywhere on earth believes this is true. Israel doesn’t believe it. Washington doesn’t believe it. Nobody reading about it in the New York Times believes it. But we’re hearing about it anyway like it’s a real thing, because too many powerful people want more bombing in Iran.” (11/04/26)
- What a Half-Century of Congressional “Reform” Has Wrought
Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg“Congress was not designed to be a parliament where parties vote in lockstep with their party leader in the White House. But that’s how it’s worked for decades. Starting in the 1970s, Congress was quietly revolutionized from within. It was all done in the name of ‘reform,’ but the better word is ‘deform.'” (11/04/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/congress-reform-broken-checks-balances/
- Trumpism Is Failing Because It Is Very, Very Stupid
Source: The New Republic
by Matt Ford“The MAGA movement is fully rooted in the promotion of ignorance and demonization of knowledge. That’s why it’s failing now. That’s why it will fail in the future.” (11/04/260
https://newrepublic.com/article/217517/midterm-2026-trumpism-without-trump
- Why Trump got the bloodbath he deserved
Source: spiked
by Sean Collins“‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’, said Trump, as he held rallies across the country. Yes, that’s what many did yesterday – they saw the midterms as a referendum on Trump, and they voted to give him a bloody nose. It was no big mystery what they didn’t like about Trump and his party. As exit polls showed, inflation, gas prices and the cost of living were top of mind. And voters blamed Trump for their unhappy circumstances, drawing a straight line between his policy choices – tariffs and the Iran war – and the tough cost-of-living situation they face. Whiffs of corruption (like the Qatari jet and Trump family deals) and bizarre preoccupations (like the ballroom and reflecting pool) just added to the sense that the president and his party are not focussed on people’s everyday concerns.” (11/04/26)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/11/04/why-trump-got-the-bloodbath-he-deserved/
- When Foreign Aid Succeeds, Why Doesn’t It End?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Stephen Lewarne“USAID’s experience reveals a missing incentive at the heart of international aid: who is rewarded when a country no longer needs help?” (11/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/when-foreign-aid-succeeds-why-doesnt-it-end/
- The ECB’s Next Big Mistake?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“A flurry of recent news from the European Union has put the eurozone economy into the spotlight: amid a background of solid growth in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the European Central Bank (ECB) has held off another rise in interest rates as inflation sticks at 3.8%, almost double its medium-term target of 2%. On top of this, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has announced her intention to resign in February 2027, roughly nine months earlier than her tenure is expected to end. There is, evidently, a lot going on in this, but despite the significance of Lagarde’s announcement, the most important is the level of inflation.” (11/04/26)
- Five timeless political lessons that got lost in 2026
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jason Chaffetz“While the leadership of the House and Senate is changing, the fundamentals of American politics have not. In all the finger pointing that will ensue over the coming weeks, some things should already be clear. Regardless of where the last ballots fall, the basic principles of American politics remain the same. Voters still respond to the same things they always have. As Republicans look to 2028, they must double down on the basics of campaigning that stand the test of time. 1.) Candidate quality matters. Fielding the better candidate is not optional. … 2.) Results must be felt. A majority is judged by outcomes people can feel, not by legislative talking points. … 3.) Volume is not a strategy. Too much money is spent on strategies with too little value, often in ways that simply annoy voters….” (11/04/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-five-timeless-political-lessons-lost-2026
- Building An America We Are Proud Of
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein“Have Americans gotten the loyalty business all wrong? Are we grasping the ‘second rate’ when we rely on politics to lift us? We are the ones, not politicians, who will build an America we are proud of.” (11/04/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/building-an-america-we-are-proud-e42
- It’s the war, stupid
Source: UnHerd
by Sohrab Ahmari“In the wake of the Democratic blowout in Tuesday’s midterms — South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas have gone blue — beware the preachers of holy complexity bent on obfuscating the obvious: President Trump and the GOP broke their pledge of peace, launched an ill-conceived war with Iran, and thus exacerbated an affordability crisis they’d been elected to solve. To be sure, other failures marked the first two years of the Trump administration: the chaotic tariff regime, the grotesque corruption, the performative cruelty of ICE, Trump’s own descent from mere reality-TV vanity to ballroom-obsessed, Neronian caprice. But the Iran war — given both its inflationary effects and galling betrayal of one of Trump’s core pledges — looms largest. The preachers of holy complexity have good reason to avoid this bare truth.” (11/04/26)
- Patrick Stewart’s Theatrical Imagination
Source: Law & Liberty
by Titus Techera“Patrick Stewart’s career shows the connections between lowbrow and highbrow culture.” (11/04/26)
https://lawliberty.org/patrick-stewarts-theatrical-imagination/
- Renewing the Eternal Contract
Source: Law & Liberty
by Daniel Johnson“Ever since England’s first written quasi-constitution—the 1653 Instrument of Government which created Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate but lasted only four years before being superseded—there have been documents that might have evolved into genuine constitutional frameworks. Yet even those that have acquired permanent symbolic status, such as the 1689 Bill of Rights, are still subject to the interpretative vagaries of the zeitgeist. This is, of course, true of the US Constitution, too, as the Supreme Court’s decisions in recent years have cast a new light on doctrines such as the separation of powers or the efficacy of checks and balances. A written constitution does not necessarily guarantee stability, let alone certainty. But in the British case, the absence of definitive rules is integral to the character, even the existence, of the state, which has always prided itself on its flexibility.” (11/04/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/renewing-the-eternal-contract/
- Trump’s Endless Lies, Deceit, Cruelty & Corruption Comes Crashing Down
Source: Common Dreams
by Bradley Blankenship“The much-anticipated U.S. midterm elections—so consequential, in fact, to President Donald Trump that he promised Americans $5,000 in cash if Republicans prevailed—have drawn to a close. As of writing, the much-discussed ‘blue tsunami’ has become a political reality: Democrats have seized control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, delivering a stunning repudiation of a president whose second administration has been nothing short of disastrous. The political ramifications are immense. Although Democrats lack the two-thirds Senate majority necessary to convict and remove Trump following impeachment, they will soon possess something they have been deprived of for two years: the institutional power to investigate his administration, subpoena witnesses, compel testimony, and expose the inner workings of a political machine that has operated with extraordinary impunity.” (11/04/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-corruption-lies-midterms
- VSD Is the Vault with the Secrets
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“Those who are confident about the safety of vaccines have before them an easy route to shore up public confidence and completely shut down the anti-vaxx movement. They could open the data to what’s called the Vaccine Safety Datalink or VSD. Right now and for the past quarter century, access is severely restricted to only a handful of people at the CDC and the employees of the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center, which has the impossible acronym NCHSRDC, in Hyattsville, Maryland. No one can buy the database or access, not the public, not researchers at NIH, not statisticians at universities nor medical doctors at hospitals. … In effect, the VSD is among the most secretive services in the entire government, comparable to Fort Knox, the Federal Reserve, and the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency. It’s the real Puzzle Palace” (11/04/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/vsd-is-the-vault-with-the-secrets/
- Time for a Reset on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Prior to the midterms, there were indications that President Trump might initiate another intense bombing campaign in Iran after the elections. I’ve got a better idea for the president. In light of the tsunami-like rejection of his presidency at the hands of American voters — owing partly to his illegal and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran — this would be a great time for him to do a complete reset with respect to not only Iran but also Cuba and Venezuela. Rather than bomb Iran again, Trump should order an immediate exit of all U.S. troops from the Middle East. … Lift the brutal decades-old U.S. economic embargo and the U.S. oil blockade. Leave the Cuban people alone …. It’s the same with Venezuela. Leave that country to the Venezuelan people. Stop cooperating with and making deals with Venezuela’s socialist-communist regime and Marxist ruler.” (11/04/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/11/04/time-for-a-reset-on-iran-cuba-and-venezuela/
- Normal Americans punished MAGA
Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith“The MAGA people appear to have been laboring under a number of delusions. First, they seem to be genuinely surprised by the fact that they suffered a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. In fact, polls, forecasts, and prediction markets had all been calling a Democratic victory for months now. But a lot of MAGA types appear to have believed that America always has some big hidden reservoir of shy Trump supporters out there that everyone always misses, and that this silent majority would ride to the GOP’s rescue and prove all the pollsters and forecasters wrong, as they did in 2016. To put it mildly, that did not happen.” (11/04/26)
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/normal-americans-punished-maga
- USAID Was Never Only A Leftist Project
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“Over the last year, a common narrative has circulated through conservative commentary about Latin America’s political shifts. Washington dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the argument goes, and conservative candidates began winning because American taxpayers stopped subsidizing their opponents. This narrative is misleading once placed under the microscope. But that has not stopped prominent figures on the MAGA right to spin a narrative.” (11/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/usaid-was-never-only-a-leftist-project/
- How Trump reacts to this shellacking will determine his legacy
Source: New York Post
by Michael Goodwin“To call Tuesday’s results a mere blue wave doesn’t do justice to the force and size of the impact. That was a blue tsunami that delivered a near-total destruction of the Republican power structure. Just don’t call it a surprise. Any fair reading of the polls in recent weeks clearly revealed the depths of public unhappiness with President Trump and the GOP Congress. Those polls meant it was widely assumed the House would fall, and it collapsed with a thud early in the evening. GOP control of the Senate was also consigned to the dustbin of history. It turns out that Fate has a sense of humor. Thinking he would pump up their turnout, Trump told Republican voters to pretend his name was on the ballot. They may or may not have heard him, but Democrats and most independents heard him loud and clear and soundly rejected him.” (11/04/26)
- Five reasons why Republicans lost so badly
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Jake Lapham“The Democrats have swept to victory in the US midterm elections, taking control of Congress. While the incumbent president’s party generally tends to have a bad night in these elections, the scale of the Republican defeat is being viewed as a resounding rejection of Donald Trump’s two years in the White House. From angry voters to an unpopular president, here are five reasons why the Republicans lost so many seats. 1.) Soaring cost of living: From coast to coast, voters across the US have been grappling with the soaring cost of essentials. That anger was palpable on the ground in key races. … 2.) Unpopular Iran war: A major factor in surging prices has been the war with Iran which the US and Israel launched in February….” (11/04/26)
- The Lincoln Highway – lesson not learned
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Time zones, a subject we’ve discussed recently, were invented by the railroads (not government) to help schedule rail traffic. But then, along came the automobile and freedom from rails. And from effective monopolies in many areas, because of the complexity of railroads – and their cost. But times change. Automobiles, like horse-drawn wagons, could and did do more than just serve an area around a railroad station. They began to go long distances. And then… well, read on.” (11/03/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/11/03/the-lincoln-highway-lesson-not-learned/
- Jefferson, Secession, and “All Men Are Created Equal”
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken“Perhaps one of the most abused and misunderstood phrases in American history is found in the Declaration of Independence where Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal.” Since at least as early as the mid nineteenth century, the phrase has been used by many American politicians as justification for government intervention in the name of imposing whatever interpretation of ‘equality’ happens to be popular at the time.” (11/03/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/jefferson-secession-and-all-men-are-created-equal
- The Food Is Fine. The Recall Process Isn’t.
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March“Last week, the FDA announced a recall of more than 4.3 million tubes of toothpaste. The recall covers 17 varieties, including several marketed to children under brands like Crayola, Hot Wheels, and My Little Pony. No illnesses or injuries have been reported. But toothpaste recalls are just the latest in what seems like a never-ending list of products being recalled by the FDA. The public has noticed. A recent survey reported by Fortune finds 94 percent of Americans are concerned about how often food is being recalled, and two-thirds now avoid an entire food category after a single recall.” (11/03/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/11/03/food-recall-process/
- Rising, 11/04/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar dissecting the Republican’s poor performance in Tuesday’s midterm elections.” (11/04/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/04/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Big Blue Blowout: Winners, Losers, And The Way Ahead.” (11/04/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 11/04/26
Source: The Dispatch
“You Are Insufficiently Grateful for Modernity | Interview: Chelsea Follett.” (11/04/26)
- The Vital Center, episode 98
Source: Niskanen Center
“Road-tripping through American history, with Beverly Gage.” (11/04/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/road-tripping-through-american-history-with-beverly-gage
- Reason Interview: Virginia Postrel
Source: Reason
“How Capitalism Quietly Revolutionized Everyday Life.” (11/04/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/11/04/how-capitalism-quietly-revolutionized-everyday-life/
- LPA Two Hour Lunch Hour, 11/04/26
Source: LP Alliance
“Join us for our anything goes podcast every Wednesday at noon eastern!” (11/04/26)
- Reasonably Optimistic, 11/04/26
Source: Washington Post
“Did the 2026 midterms put religion back in politics?” (11/04/26)
- Washington Monthly Podcast, 11/04/26
Source: Washington Monthly
“Who Counts in America?” (11/04/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/11/04/who-counts-in-america/
- PANEL: Can “America First” Become a Bipartisan Cause?
Source: The Realist Review
“Moderated by The New Yorker’s Ishaan Tharoor, James W. Carden, Christopher Mott, and Mark Hannah weigh in …” (11/04/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/panel-can-america-first-become-a
- NPR Politics Podcast, 11/04/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Dems win big in midterm elections.” (11/04/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/11/04/nx-s1-6028566/dems-win-big-in-midterm-elections
- Cato Weekly Podcast, 11/03/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Original Sin of US Health Policy.” (11/03/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-weekly-podcast/original-sin-us-health-policy
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 11/03/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly chat. We talk about election day considerations and everything worthwhile that has nothing to do with politics.” (11/03/26)
- Nonzero, 11/03/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“When AI Enters the Quantum World | Robert Wright & Scott Aaronson.” (11/03/26)
- Privacy’s Defenders Podcast, 11/03/26
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
“The Secret Room.” (11/03/26)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/privacys-defenders-podcast-secret-room
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/03/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Claims He’ll End $4 Billion in Military Aid to Israel, US Watched Qeshm Air Defense, and More.” (11/03/26)
- The Fifth Column: Midterm Madness
Source: The Fifth Column
“[Y[our favorite podcast hosts plus special guests Peter Meijer, Jessica Tarlov, Jamie Kirchick, Mary Katharine Ham, Josh Barro, Megan McArdle, Ben Dreyfuss, Jonathan Martin and more!” (11/03/26)
- America This Week, 11/03/26
Source: Racket News
“Walter Kirn and I will be back on air tonight, watching Election Night lunacy and pondering questions big, small, and in between, as the calendar flips from Midterms to Campaign ‘28.” (11/03/26)
- Capital Record, episode 331
Source: National Review
“Selling a House How You Want to Sell It.” (11/03/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/selling-a-house-how-you-want-to-sell-it/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/03/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Election Desperation? Trump Promised To End Israel Aid!” (11/03/26)
- Sal and Mark, episode 24
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sal and Mark kick off with Aaron of Houdini Swap on the brand new Stealth Send feature inside Edge Wallet, then Paul Puey of Edge Wallet joins to talk about how the integration came together.” (11/03/26)